A group of 14 NGOs gathered in front of parliament to strengthen society's determination not to succumb to the scaremongering campaign being launched by the exponents of the populist right.
After a speech the organizations unveiled a sign outside Parliament reading "Fl-1943 il-Maltin waqfu lill-Faxxizmu. Fl-2006 ser nhalluh jerfa` rasu?
video click here Transcript of the speech in English
The right are riding on a wave of popular discontent which is mostly due to our current economic crises in order to sow the seeds of fear.
As we have all witnessed in the past weeks fear and hatred have led to an upsurge of violence against people whose only fault was that they exercised their inalienable right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to impart information and ideas through any media. We are referring to the spate of arson attacks against people who have openly criticized the theses advocated by the anti-immigrants lobby. We fell that any affront to freedom of speech is an affront to Maltese society as a whole and would like to show our sincere solidarity with the victims of these attacks and their families. When these basic rights are attacked, each and every one of us should feel threatened. Our presence here today also reflects our wish to stand up, and be counted as being amongst those who want all the hate speech, xenophobia, intolerance and violence to come to an end. However we would like to point out that freedom of speech can in no way mean the freedom to incite hatred or the freedom to pass racist comments and would like to remind these people that racism goes against our Constitution, therefore we urge the authorities to step up action against those people who perpetrate these crimes.
The political party and organizations represented at this activity today also think that protests against migration are symptoms of politically immature organizations. Immigration is an inescapable reality of this particular age we are living in. It is not going to stop any time soon and is bound to continue increasing. According to the International Labour Oganisation this phenomenon is a direct consequence of both economic and political factors. Globalisation, which has led to growing labour supply pressures and an increasing gap in income both across and within nations, is one of the causes of this migratory influx towards the West. However one must keep in mind that most of these people have fled from war torn countries and possibly from persecution, with the sole aim of protecting and saving their lives. Tightening immigration rules has had no effect on this trend. We believe that bearing these facts in mind it is necessary to ding all the necessary ways of integrating migrants. We would also like to take this occasion to show our appreciation for those organizations such as the Jesuit Refugee Services, Fondazzjoni Suriet il-Bniedem and the Emigrants Commission, for the sterling work they are doing in trying to promote the integration of these people.
Finally we would like to appeal to the common sense of every Maltese Citizen, so as not to fall prey to the antics of the populist right. There is nothing to be afraid of, nothing and no one to protest against, immigrations are not a threat to Maltese society, and the real threat lies elsewhere!
Throughour World War II our forbears heroically fought the Fascists threat coming from abroad; today our task is much more difficult because we have to resist the germination of the fascist seed which has been sown amongst us. It's about time that civil realizes the seriousness of this threat. Each and every one of use has got to contribute so to the defence of values (such as tolerance, respect for diversity, freedom of speech, etc) which should be at the core of every modern uncover the commemorative plaque which asks the rhetorical question are we going to allow fascism to raise it head in 2006?We will leave the answer to this question to each and every Maltese citizen!
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